FC Bayern: Bundesliga Hopes on the Ropes as Frankfurt Visits the Allianz Arena

A loss to Roma by a goal in the Champions League meant that Bayern would finish as the top team in their Champions League group. The loss, though, revealed deficiencies which Louis Van Gaal should have fixed a long time ago.

Mario Gomez scored twice in the first half. Bayern dominated the first half but had the occasional defensive lapse. In the second half, Bayern conceded early from Marco Boriello. Thomas Kraft made a great save to deny Roma the equalizer. The equalizer came moments later through Daniele De Rossi. Roma grabbed a late winner through a Francesco Totti spot kick.

Bayern has frustrated everyone all season long. They have looked nothing like the double winners and CL finalists of last season. Put in Hanover, Freiburg and Nuremberg as the opposition and you will get a great result. Put in Dortmund—that spells trouble. Dortmund is a side that had been beaten by Bayern badly last season, and this time they came to the Allianz Arena and blitzed Bayern apart.

The match on Tuesday showed once again why even cash-strapped Rangers wouldn't want to take Daniel Van Buyten and Martin Demichelis on a free transfer.

Are Bayern's Bundesliga hopes over?

YesNoToo early to tellSubmit Votevote to see results

Are Bayern's Bundesliga hopes over?

Yes

23.8%

No

57.1%

Too early to tell

19.0%

Total votes: 21

The defence frustrated Bayern fans last season. Whenever Bayern lost a game because of hapless defending, Louis Van Gaal came out and blamed his midfielders and strikers for not scoring goals. He refused to let the defence take the blame. Either Van Gaal sees something in Van Buyten that we don't or Van Buyten knows something about him that we don't happen to know.

Arjen Robben cannot be the answer to all problems. The team absolutely loses its cool when the opposition presses them. This cannot go on. Robben might solve the problem to a certain extent by making sure that the opposition has quite a few players marking him.

However, he cannot fix the defence.

The defence is even more horrible than it was last season. With Holger Badstuber out for a while, things at the back don't look like improving anytime soon.

The problems in the board are no secret. Van Gaal perhaps needs to have a very severe cold to ensure that he doesn't open his mouth as far as matters of the board are concerned. Uli Hoeness clearly does not like the Dutchman's dictator-like approach and Karl Heinz Rummenigge certainly did not like his comments about Bastian Schweinsteiger. Added to that, Franck Ribery did not like the recent comments that Van Gaal made about him publicly.

Eintracht Frankfurt hasn't been in good form recently. They were hammered 4-0 by Hoffenheim in Frankfurt in their last game. The blame is obviously on the defence, though, Frankfurt could have made more of his chances. Theofanis Gekas, Oka Nikolov and Pirmin Schwegler have been the best players in Frankfurt so far.

And, I almost forgot to mention that Frankfurt has won one more game than Bayern has in the Bundesliga this season.

Arjen Robben, Badstuber, Miro Klose and Ivica Olic will not play any part in this match while Franck Ribery might start. As far as Frankfurt is concerned, Maik Franz and Georgios Tzavellas are suspended for this one.

Following the previous World Cup in 2006, Bayern finished fourth and failed to qualify for the Champions League. They failed to reinforce their squad prior to that season. A similar scenario might follow but this time the embarrassment will be doubled—the final of the 2012 European Champions League is at the Allianz Arena.

Prediction: Considering that Frankfurt is a mid-table side, Bayern should do away with them.